Tinsley et al.

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2015, 12(Suppl 1):P38

http://www.jissn.com/content/12/S1/P38

POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access

Intermittent fasting combined with resistance

training: effects on body composition, muscular
performance, and dietary intake
Grant M Tinsley*, Natalie K Butler, Jeffrey S Forsse, Annie A Bane, Grant B Morgan, Paul S Hwang,
Peter W Grandjean, Paul M La Bounty
From The Twelfth International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) Conference and Expo
Austin, TX, USA. 11-13 June 2015

Background track and encourage program adherence, as well as exam-

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a dietary strategy that has ine dietary differences. One-way and factorial ANOVAs
recently gained popularity due to a number of potential were conducted using R (version 3.1.1).
health benefits. One form of IF, termed time-restricted
feeding (TRF), only allows caloric intake during a lim- Results
ited window of time each day (often 4 to 8 hours in No group*time interactions were found for any measures
duration). One concern of IF is the potential loss of lean of body composition (lean mass, fat mass, and body fat
mass due to the fasting periods. Resistance training is percentage), muscular performance, or dietary intake. A
known to help mitigate loss of lean mass during hypocalo- time main effect for increased leg press 1-RM (p = 0.011)
ric diets. The purpose of this experiment was to examine and a group main effect for higher leg press 1-RM in the
the effects of TRF in combination with resistance training RT+TRF group (p = 0.011) were seen. A group main effect
on body composition, muscular performance, and dietary was present for higher bench press endurance in the RT
intake in young untrained males. +TRF group (p = 0.013). Within the RT+TRF group, parti-
cipants consumed fewer calories (p = 0.008), less protein
Methods (p = 0.017), less carbohydrate (p = 0.007), and less fat (p =
Adult males (n = 18) were recruited and randomized into 0.050) on fasting days compared to non-fasting days.
one of two groups: resistance training alone (RT) or resis- However, there was no difference in the percent of total
tance training plus TRF (RT+TRF). Both groups followed calories from any macronutrient. There were no differ-
a 3-days-per-week resistance training program for ences in total calories, protein, or fat consumed between
8 weeks. The TRF program was implemented on non- the non-fasting days of the RT+TRF group and the RT
workout days (i.e. 4 days per week) and consisted of con- group, but the RT group consumed more carbohydrate
suming all calories within any 4-hour period between (p = 0.018). Noticeable differences in individual responses
4 PM and midnight. Both groups were allowed unrest- to the programs were noted.
ricted food intake during feeding periods. Research visits
were conducted at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after Conclusions
beginning the study and consisted of body composition In the absence of any other dietary guidance, restricting
assessment via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), caloric consumption to a 4-hour window on 4 days per
1-repetition maximum (1-RM) strength testing and mus- week was not sufficient to elicit body composition
cular endurance testing on bench press and leg press exer- improvements in 8 weeks, although lean mass was main-
cises, and subjective measures of program difficulty. Diet tained in both groups. This form of IF was sufficient to
records, workout logs, and compliance forms were used to reduce caloric intake on fasting days, but this did not
translate to body fat reductions in many subjects.
Untrained young men experience similar strength adapta-
* Correspondence: Grant_Tinsley@baylor.edu
Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA tions whether they eat normally or perform this form of
© 2015 Tinsley et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/
zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Tinsley et al. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2015, 12(Suppl 1):P38 Page 2 of 2
http://www.jissn.com/content/12/S1/P38

IF. Protein intake may be of particular concern for indivi-

duals implementing IF and young men beginning a resis-
tance training program.

Published: 21 September 2015

doi:10.1186/1550-2783-12-S1-P38
Cite this article as: Tinsley et al.: Intermittent fasting combined with
resistance training: effects on body composition, muscular performance,
and dietary intake. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
2015 12(Suppl 1):P38.

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